Safa says she is determined to continue her treatment and to find her mother.

Five-year-old Aisha spent the two hours on the road looking out the window of the car, asking 'are we there yet?' smiling for the soldiers at checkpoints and asking her 14-year-old sister, Safa, to play. Safa though, was occupied with thoughts of her mother. Where was she? Is she still alive?

Aisha and Safa left the city of Adra with their neighbours. Their mother was detained by one of the armed groups inside the city while trying to leave. Safa, who has a serious blood disorder, had missed her blood transfusion and the family was leaving in search of medical help.

After they arrived at a temporary shelter, volunteers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent took the two girls to a house in a nearby town and started the process of finding relatives who could care for them.

Safa had told them of an aunt who lived in the nearby city of Alqutaifa. Volunteers made contact with the aunt, but Safa's concern was still for her mother. "I do not think much of what will happen to us, I just want to know the fate of my mother."

She says she would worry about treatment and school, when she knew her mother was safe. "What is important now is to hear the voice of my mother."

The aunt received the two girls in tears and she, too, is very concerned for her sister. When she left for Adra, which is closer to the hospital where Safa was being treated, she had no thoughts but for her children. "My sister was not thinking about anything else but her daughters, how she could fulfil their needs, and get treatment for Safa. So she moved to Adra. I wish she had not."

Adra City was home to 50,000 people but received 200,000 displaced people after fighting broke out in the East Ghota of Damascus. The entire city has been under siege. Until recently, only 21,000 civilians had managed to escape outside the city. Aisha and Safa were forced to walk more than five kilometres to gain access to a cement plant in the nearby industrial city, from where they could get to a driving school to meet Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers.

After they arrived at their aunt's home, Aisha and Safa thanked the volunteers for their assistance. The future is uncertain - as it is for so many in Syria - but they hope to hear some news about their mother soon. "I will continue treatment," Safa says. "But I will the search for mum and take care of my little sister."